{"id":140093,"date":"2025-08-12T16:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140093\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:25:10","slug":"fort-worth-isd-kicks-off-first-day-of-school-with-celebration-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140093\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth ISD kicks off first day of school with celebration \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than 70,000 students in Fort Worth ISD, the first day of school on Tuesday was more than just a return to the classroom.<\/p>\n

At ML Phillips Elementary, it was a celebration.<\/p>\n

Students were greeted with bubbles, music, and dancing teachers, all designed to make the first day a little less intimidating and a lot more fun.<\/p>\n

“Kinsley is excited every day to go to school and just learn, and she soaks up everything,” said Audrey Hunt, mother to a new first grader. “She loves her teachers so much, and they love her. They’re so good with the students here. It’s just a big family.”<\/p>\n

Superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joined the welcome, giving out high fives and visiting classrooms to meet students. The elementary school is one of several campuses on their tour on the first day back to school.<\/p>\n

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Supt. Molinar high-fives parents at M.L. Phillips Elementary School on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Both praised the campus as a model of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cM.L. Phillips is one of our elementary schools that is really a beacon of success for us going into the school year,\u201d Molinar said during a press conference. \u201cIt has grown more than 30 points to go from an F-rated campus to a B-rated campus. That is from the dedication of the students, the faculty, the parents, and of course, their amazing principal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district says the school\u2019s turnaround is part of a broader improvement trend. Molinar noted that the number of failing campuses in the district dropped from 31 to 11 over the last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater this week, we will be doing our public announcement for our A through F ratings for our school district,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be very excited to share some success stories that more than 50 campuses moved a letter grade up as well. So we have wonderful news to share about the great things that are happening in Fort Worth ISD, but this just shows how much support has happened over the last eight to nine months for our school district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Parker said the improvement at ML Phillips was no small feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat she stated is not to be taken lightly. To go from an F campus to a B campus over the last year really does reflect strong leadership both here on this campus, support from administration, but it all starts with these kiddos and these students and these families that realized we can do more together,\u201d Parker said. \u201cI\u2019m just excited about what this year, next school year, brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker also pointed to progress across the district since Molinar, a Fort Worth native and longtime FWISD educator, took the helm earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCandidly, it was less than a year since Karen took the helm, and so I\u2019m fully confident that the change we asked for, not just as your mayor but as a community, was listened to by the board of directors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tNBC 5<\/p>\n

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Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker observes students in the classroom at M.L. Phillips Elementary.<\/p>\n

Despite the progress, the Texas Education Agency is still considering a possible takeover of the district following years of low performance at some schools. Molinar said she\u2019s in communication with the commissioner, who is expected to make a decision this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commissioner and I will continue to have conversations. He\u2019s not made a decision on what will happen next, but we do understand he has to under statute,\u201d Molinar said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to move on and do what\u2019s right for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Fort Worth ISD is rolling out new initiatives for the 2024\u201325 school year, including more resources for teachers, double-blocked math and reading for middle schoolers, and a new phonics program for students in kindergarten through third grade.<\/p>\n

The TEA commissioner is expected to visit Fort Worth ISD in September. District leaders say they\u2019re ready to showcase the progress they\u2019ve made and the plans they have for the future.<\/p>\n

“We welcome him anytime. We’re ready to show off the progress we’re making and the new initiatives we’re implementing, so we look forward to his visit,” said Molinar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than 70,000 students in Fort Worth ISD, the first day of school on Tuesday was more…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,13915,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-140093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-back-to-school","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115016730286349989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}